RADARS - a Rapid Data Archival and Retrieval System for High-Throughput Proteome Projects In the wake of the human genome project, the next important step towards understanding and curing human disease is the characterization of all mature gene products that are encoded in the genome, i.e. the proteome. For example, knowledge of the difference between normal and transformed cells in terms of which proteins are present and how they are post-translationally modified is important information for understanding cancer. Mass spectrometry is a powerful experimental tool for high-throughput identification and characterization of proteins and provides means for rapidly obtaining very large amounts of valuable experimental data. We are developing a concept for a software system called RADARS for automatic analysis...cont.. and secure storage of the experimental data generated in high-throughput proteome projects. It will be easily accessed over the intranet using any web browser. The capabilities of RADARS will include Swift automatic searches of protein sequence databases using information from mass spectrometric measurements. Correlation of mass spectrometric measurements with protein sequences for rapid characterization of post-translational modifications of proteins. Storage of protein mass spectrometry experiments in a relational database. RADARS supports storage of the original mass spectra, the experimental conditions, and the results of analysis performed (e.g., database searches for protein identification or comparison with protein sequences for characterization of post-translational modifications). Facile access to a variety of molecular biology databases is provided. The software system will be developed with an SBIR grant.